Photo: Fifty-two candles are lit at a gathering in Huntsville on December 6. The number of candles represents the 52 women and girls killed in Ontario in 2022. One hundred and seventy-two women were killed across Canada this year.
There was a fog of deep sadness in the room as the names of 52 women and girls who were senselessly murdered in this province, this year alone, were read out.
All 52 women, their ages (which ranged between 8 to 88 years of age), where they were murdered, and something about them was read out by someone in the room as a candle was lit for each and every single one of them. At times there were sobs as those in attendance at the Friends Room of the Huntsville Public Library read out their names and imagined the women or girls’ lives before they became victims of femicide.
“Home is not safe for everyone,” Sarah Glencross with Muskoka Women’s Advocacy Group, which operates two shelters in Muskoka, told the somber gathering of about 30 women, men, children, and representatives of organizations trying to make a difference. “Seventy-seven per cent of all femicide cases this year occurred either inside or outside of the residence,” said Glencross, referencing a report by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses which tracks the number of femicides in the province. Femicide is used to describe gender-related murders of women and gender-diverse people, often by intimate partners and family members.
The group gathered in the late afternoon of December 6, to recognize the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The date has been marked in our collective memory as a direct result of the murder of 14 women in a mechanical engineering classroom at Montreal’s École Polytechnique by a crazed gunman on December 6, 1989.
“We gather together today to remember the 14 women and also to honour and recognize the women who have been murdered this year in Ontario,” said Glencross, who referred to the 52 women and girls murdered in one year as 52 too many.
A deep love for nature and music, caring, strong, studious, adventurous, kind, loving, a beautiful soul, hard-working, a helper—these were just some of the ways the murdered mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, granddaughters, and community members were described.
Huntsville OPP Detachment commander John-Paul Graham was also in attendance. He said intimate partner violence in the community happens more often than people might think.
He said on those calls for service police find that most people feel physically and psychologically trapped in their situation.
Graham said police undergo intense training, including trauma-informed training, to learn how to pick out some of the cues that could lead to homicide… “because every time we go to a call, it’s just not a call for service, it’s an investigation of a potential threat to somebody’s life, harassment, forceable confinement—intimate partner sexual assault; it occurs all the time, every day, and I would say that the reporting stats are far less than what’s actually occurring in the community.”
He said community members can help by calling it out. “Call it out for what it is and then the police will be there to be the first line of defence for any person that’s going through intimate partner violence,” he said, adding that connecting the victims with community services once their immediate safety is looked after is what follows.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock was also present. She said she was invited to attend the event and immediately accepted in order to learn more about the issue. “As a leader of our community, if there is a way that we can be supportive in whatever capacity we’re able, then I think it’s important that we understand.”
Hannah Lin, executive director for YWCA Muskoka, said a fund exists to help women and their children get out of abusive relationships. In the past 16 months, 19 women and their families accessed the fund to find safe shelter in this community, and YWCAs across the country continue to raise funds to help women in abusive situations find safety.
She said community members can help not by putting themselves in harm’s way but by speaking out and accessing resources to help women who find themselves in bad situations.
“I wish it would end,” added Lin.
If you are in an abusive situation, there is help. Muskoka Victim Services can be reached at 1-844-762-9945. Its website is muskokavs.ca. You can also email [email protected].
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